She obviously never heard of how safe sheepskin can make you
The Steep Path Ahead [Familiar of Zero AU]
- Thread starter shadenight123
- Start date
She obviously never heard of how safe sheepskin can make you
- Pronouns
- she/her
Indeed, there's no health issue that can't be solved by rubbing intestinal lining on one's genitals.
Can't be there in the capital remember. Also what happened to meeting the cardinal?
Chapter Twenty-Nine
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The mansion was an old, rickety thing that stood in-between two normal looking houses. Its owner had changed residence, leaving it behind, and then had died without heirs. It had been forgotten for years, until an upstarting rich merchant had gotten his daughter married to a noble, and that in turn had meant he had to find them a nice house worthy of a princess' dowry.
The man however was a merchant, and rather than buy a noble's house and end up as a poor merchant father, he had gone rummaging, found the abandoned house and laid claim to it quietly by paying a neat sum to the crown and citing it was going to a noble's family anyway, so the nobles nearby had no need to raise a fuss because of 'uncouth' neighbors.
And it was thus as the first workers had begun repairing it that the 'ghost' had arrived. Some said the ghost was a young woman, others said it was an old man, but what they all seemed to agree on was that the ghost wasn't making the job easy for any of them.
At first, it had been missing tools. When the tools had been replaced, the armors had begun to move. When one of the workers ended up with a poleaxe through his shoulder, the repairs had stopped.
A priest had been called, but the spirit had simply made the chandelier fall upon him, and thus -while the priest had been quick enough to save himself from imminent death- even the exorcism had failed.
So now it was up to the adventurers.
"Come on Luis," Saito said as he opened the gates with the key the merchant had given them. The man had mentioned he'd allow any adventurer to try at any hour of the day or night -which was the reason why they were there in the middle of the night, rather than wait for the morning.
"S-Saito," Luise stuttered. "W-Why don't we come back when it's daytime?"
Past the gate, the gardens under the light of the moon would have been the envy of any poet trying to find 'the most beautiful rose' to describe, for they truly were a work of art. "Because I'm not going to sleep at all tonight," Saito grumbled. "My teeth hurt so much-really, and I've slept all the afternoon so I'm not tired. And you slept too, no use hiding it, Luis."
Luise growled, clenching her hands into fists as they both came to a halt in front of the main door to the mansion. "Don't you want to meet a real ghost and ask them what's beyond death?" Saito said, trying to coax Luise to step inside as the door swung open to allow them entrance.
"Tell me you're the one who pushed it open," Luise whispered.
"Uh? Must have been the wind," Saito shrugged, and stepped inside. "Hey there! Mister Ghost-"
Then the door closed abruptly behind him, and Luise heard a blood curling scream come from inside which made the girl jump back, wand in hand.
Trembling like a leaf, Luise neared the door with her heart beating in her head. "Saito? I swear if this is a joke," she hissed as she swung the door open. And there Saito was, his shield in front of him as a spear had embedded itself halfway through it. Had it been his old wooden shield, the spear would have gone right through and skewered him.
"Hey," Saito said nervously, "I think this ghost is pissed."
The door snapped shut right behind Luise, who had entered to check on Saito's condition. In the dark entrance hall, illuminated only by the light of the moon, the fallen chandelier clinked near them, and dried blood stood clearly defined upon the bone white marble tiles. A lone stairway that split in a right and left balcony, and potentially hallways, stood with a dark crimson carpet on it right in front of the main door.
"Be goneeee," a voice said with a haunted tone from afar.
"You closed the door!" Luise shrieked back, holding on to Saito. "If you wanted us to leave, you could have just left it open!" as she brought her wand forward, she took a deep breath. "I have a wand! I have a wand and I'm not afraid of using it!"
"Mister Ghost!" Saito said, trying to sound polite even as he removed the spear from his shield, wincing a bit as he gaped at the hole made on the steel shield. "Isn't there something we can do to convince you to leave peacefully?"
"Go awayyyy..." the voice said again.
Taking a deep breath, Luise stared right ahead. "No house, no ghost, no haunting," and then she thrust her wand forward, creating an explosion that tore apart the silence of the night by breaking off the windows in the entrance hall in a shower of deadly glass -which thankfully was aimed outwards.
"L-Luis!" Saito said shrilly.
"Hush," Luise replied, tapping her wand against the open palm of her hand. "Ghosts do not exist," she said, trying to sound resolute but failing utterly at that. "And if they exist, then as a future priest it is my duty to exorcise them!"
She swished her wand once more, but this time Saito intervened, lifting his shield in time to stop a suit of armor from slamming its ax down on the girl, having come right at them from atop the stairs' balcony that overlooked the entrance hall.
The shield rang with a sort of crystalline quality as Saito's hand moved to his sword, which was a pretty nice steel longsword stolen from Count Mott's men, and as he hit the armor right on the helmet, its headless metallic form remained unperturbed by his lack of head.
Saito stared.
Luise stared.
The armor brought its arm back for another swing of its ax, and as both young adventurers screamed, Luise's wand once more moved erratically, delivering a thundering point-blank explosion that sent the armor into the realm of non-existence, but also made both Saito and Luise's ears ring.
Saito's vision was blurry, but not that much -he had learned to close his eyes whenever he saw the tiny sphere of pure white that announced either an explosion or a sleep spell, so empowered by his familiar powers, he hoisted Luise by her midriff with his shield-arm and ran out of the entrance hall, straight through a hallway filled with paintings that he could swear were following him with their haughty gazes, and right into an abandoned room to the side which he barricaded with a drawer.
"Out of the window," Saito said, resolutely gazing at...the walls, because the windows were on the other side of the hallway, which he had most aptly ignored in favor of running for the closest door. "Next time, I throw myself out of a window."
"Next time, we wait the middle of the day," Luise said hotly from the corner Saito had 'dropped' her. As she put a hand to her chest and took a deep breath, she locked eyes with Saito resolutely. "If this is a really powerful ghost, then we find a way to pacify it before it-"
A suit of armor clanked just outside the door, making both youngsters freeze and hold their breaths in.
"Go awayyyy..." Then the ax struck against the wooden door, sending the splinters to fly as the hollow suit looked through the crack with its empty self. "Gooooo awaaaayyyyy..."
Luise's wand vaporized the thing, the door, and pretty much most of the doorway and the walls attached to it. She did that without a word, her eyes wide and her skin pale and white with fear.
Saito blinked. "Luis, tone it down with the explosions or there won't be a house left-"
"Saito," Luise said quite calmly. "I-I can cast explosions without saying anything."
"Uh? Sure you can. I mean, you did it a few times didn't you?"
"No, you don't get it," Luise snapped, waving her wand around. "It's one thing to say 'Fireball' and get an explosion, it's another to make an explosion that actually vaporizes stuff! Look at that level of destruction! I just destroyed a full plate of armor! If it had been a real person, I would have killed him! Fireballs don't kill, well, the weak ones don't. They burn people! Up until now, my explosions were mostly dust clouds or soot!"
"So...you make bigger explosions now?" Saito hazarded as he peeked out into the hallway in case another suit decided to try its luck.
"Well, yes, let's go with that," Luise grumbled. "Still! Mega-Explosions! Eat your hat, Academy Headmaster! 'You will never account to nothing with a bit of soot and dust, Miss Orphan!' Ha! Showed you who's best now, didn't...I?"
With her eyes drooping down and her frame trembling from mental and physical exhaustion, Luise dropped down, and if not for Saito's quick reflexes in catching her, she would have hit her head pretty badly too.
"Notice to self," Saito said as he heard the suits of armor in the hallway come to life once more. "Taking a sub-quest just because there's time to waste before completing the main quest is not a smart move."
And then he ran for the window, which unfortunately did nothing as he bounced right back, as if they had been made not of glass, but of steel.
"GO AWAY!" the suits of armor shrieked wildly as he swung a poleaxe this time in wild abandon, slashing at the walls in an effort to hit Saito.
Holding Luise in a bridal carry, Saito ran to the end of the hallway, and past it to the left where an open door seemed to give into the gardens, or what looked like them at a first glance.
As it turned out, it wasn't a way to the gardens outside, but to an inner greenhouse.
An inner greenhouse filled with snapping, possibly flesh-eating, carnivorous plants.
The mansion was an old, rickety thing that stood in-between two normal looking houses. Its owner had changed residence, leaving it behind, and then had died without heirs. It had been forgotten for years, until an upstarting rich merchant had gotten his daughter married to a noble, and that in turn had meant he had to find them a nice house worthy of a princess' dowry.
The man however was a merchant, and rather than buy a noble's house and end up as a poor merchant father, he had gone rummaging, found the abandoned house and laid claim to it quietly by paying a neat sum to the crown and citing it was going to a noble's family anyway, so the nobles nearby had no need to raise a fuss because of 'uncouth' neighbors.
And it was thus as the first workers had begun repairing it that the 'ghost' had arrived. Some said the ghost was a young woman, others said it was an old man, but what they all seemed to agree on was that the ghost wasn't making the job easy for any of them.
At first, it had been missing tools. When the tools had been replaced, the armors had begun to move. When one of the workers ended up with a poleaxe through his shoulder, the repairs had stopped.
A priest had been called, but the spirit had simply made the chandelier fall upon him, and thus -while the priest had been quick enough to save himself from imminent death- even the exorcism had failed.
So now it was up to the adventurers.
"Come on Luis," Saito said as he opened the gates with the key the merchant had given them. The man had mentioned he'd allow any adventurer to try at any hour of the day or night -which was the reason why they were there in the middle of the night, rather than wait for the morning.
"S-Saito," Luise stuttered. "W-Why don't we come back when it's daytime?"
Past the gate, the gardens under the light of the moon would have been the envy of any poet trying to find 'the most beautiful rose' to describe, for they truly were a work of art. "Because I'm not going to sleep at all tonight," Saito grumbled. "My teeth hurt so much-really, and I've slept all the afternoon so I'm not tired. And you slept too, no use hiding it, Luis."
Luise growled, clenching her hands into fists as they both came to a halt in front of the main door to the mansion. "Don't you want to meet a real ghost and ask them what's beyond death?" Saito said, trying to coax Luise to step inside as the door swung open to allow them entrance.
"Tell me you're the one who pushed it open," Luise whispered.
"Uh? Must have been the wind," Saito shrugged, and stepped inside. "Hey there! Mister Ghost-"
Then the door closed abruptly behind him, and Luise heard a blood curling scream come from inside which made the girl jump back, wand in hand.
Trembling like a leaf, Luise neared the door with her heart beating in her head. "Saito? I swear if this is a joke," she hissed as she swung the door open. And there Saito was, his shield in front of him as a spear had embedded itself halfway through it. Had it been his old wooden shield, the spear would have gone right through and skewered him.
"Hey," Saito said nervously, "I think this ghost is pissed."
The door snapped shut right behind Luise, who had entered to check on Saito's condition. In the dark entrance hall, illuminated only by the light of the moon, the fallen chandelier clinked near them, and dried blood stood clearly defined upon the bone white marble tiles. A lone stairway that split in a right and left balcony, and potentially hallways, stood with a dark crimson carpet on it right in front of the main door.
"Be goneeee," a voice said with a haunted tone from afar.
"You closed the door!" Luise shrieked back, holding on to Saito. "If you wanted us to leave, you could have just left it open!" as she brought her wand forward, she took a deep breath. "I have a wand! I have a wand and I'm not afraid of using it!"
"Mister Ghost!" Saito said, trying to sound polite even as he removed the spear from his shield, wincing a bit as he gaped at the hole made on the steel shield. "Isn't there something we can do to convince you to leave peacefully?"
"Go awayyyy..." the voice said again.
Taking a deep breath, Luise stared right ahead. "No house, no ghost, no haunting," and then she thrust her wand forward, creating an explosion that tore apart the silence of the night by breaking off the windows in the entrance hall in a shower of deadly glass -which thankfully was aimed outwards.
"L-Luis!" Saito said shrilly.
"Hush," Luise replied, tapping her wand against the open palm of her hand. "Ghosts do not exist," she said, trying to sound resolute but failing utterly at that. "And if they exist, then as a future priest it is my duty to exorcise them!"
She swished her wand once more, but this time Saito intervened, lifting his shield in time to stop a suit of armor from slamming its ax down on the girl, having come right at them from atop the stairs' balcony that overlooked the entrance hall.
The shield rang with a sort of crystalline quality as Saito's hand moved to his sword, which was a pretty nice steel longsword stolen from Count Mott's men, and as he hit the armor right on the helmet, its headless metallic form remained unperturbed by his lack of head.
Saito stared.
Luise stared.
The armor brought its arm back for another swing of its ax, and as both young adventurers screamed, Luise's wand once more moved erratically, delivering a thundering point-blank explosion that sent the armor into the realm of non-existence, but also made both Saito and Luise's ears ring.
Saito's vision was blurry, but not that much -he had learned to close his eyes whenever he saw the tiny sphere of pure white that announced either an explosion or a sleep spell, so empowered by his familiar powers, he hoisted Luise by her midriff with his shield-arm and ran out of the entrance hall, straight through a hallway filled with paintings that he could swear were following him with their haughty gazes, and right into an abandoned room to the side which he barricaded with a drawer.
"Out of the window," Saito said, resolutely gazing at...the walls, because the windows were on the other side of the hallway, which he had most aptly ignored in favor of running for the closest door. "Next time, I throw myself out of a window."
"Next time, we wait the middle of the day," Luise said hotly from the corner Saito had 'dropped' her. As she put a hand to her chest and took a deep breath, she locked eyes with Saito resolutely. "If this is a really powerful ghost, then we find a way to pacify it before it-"
A suit of armor clanked just outside the door, making both youngsters freeze and hold their breaths in.
"Go awayyyy..." Then the ax struck against the wooden door, sending the splinters to fly as the hollow suit looked through the crack with its empty self. "Gooooo awaaaayyyyy..."
Luise's wand vaporized the thing, the door, and pretty much most of the doorway and the walls attached to it. She did that without a word, her eyes wide and her skin pale and white with fear.
Saito blinked. "Luis, tone it down with the explosions or there won't be a house left-"
"Saito," Luise said quite calmly. "I-I can cast explosions without saying anything."
"Uh? Sure you can. I mean, you did it a few times didn't you?"
"No, you don't get it," Luise snapped, waving her wand around. "It's one thing to say 'Fireball' and get an explosion, it's another to make an explosion that actually vaporizes stuff! Look at that level of destruction! I just destroyed a full plate of armor! If it had been a real person, I would have killed him! Fireballs don't kill, well, the weak ones don't. They burn people! Up until now, my explosions were mostly dust clouds or soot!"
"So...you make bigger explosions now?" Saito hazarded as he peeked out into the hallway in case another suit decided to try its luck.
"Well, yes, let's go with that," Luise grumbled. "Still! Mega-Explosions! Eat your hat, Academy Headmaster! 'You will never account to nothing with a bit of soot and dust, Miss Orphan!' Ha! Showed you who's best now, didn't...I?"
With her eyes drooping down and her frame trembling from mental and physical exhaustion, Luise dropped down, and if not for Saito's quick reflexes in catching her, she would have hit her head pretty badly too.
"Notice to self," Saito said as he heard the suits of armor in the hallway come to life once more. "Taking a sub-quest just because there's time to waste before completing the main quest is not a smart move."
And then he ran for the window, which unfortunately did nothing as he bounced right back, as if they had been made not of glass, but of steel.
"GO AWAY!" the suits of armor shrieked wildly as he swung a poleaxe this time in wild abandon, slashing at the walls in an effort to hit Saito.
Holding Luise in a bridal carry, Saito ran to the end of the hallway, and past it to the left where an open door seemed to give into the gardens, or what looked like them at a first glance.
As it turned out, it wasn't a way to the gardens outside, but to an inner greenhouse.
An inner greenhouse filled with snapping, possibly flesh-eating, carnivorous plants.
a mage did it!
Can't be. Really big butterfly wing flaps aside she should still be in Albion. Maybe they found a hidey hole of Henrietta's? unlikely, hummm.....
Merry Christmas Saito and Luise!
And to you too @shadenight123 .
And to you too @shadenight123 .
Chapter Thirty
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Thirty
Saito knew that this was the fault of an Alchemist. He was so sure this was the fault of an Alchemist that he didn't even bother with screaming at the sight of a carnivorous plant with teeth snap its jaws an inch away from his face. He just pulled out his sword and sliced the thing's blossom-like face letting it shriek as it died, spluttering green blood everywhere on him and on Luise's back, since he had moved from a bridal carry to a shoulder-carry.
He had been so set on the idea it was a ghost that it took him the sight of carnivorous plants to realize he wasn't back on Earth anymore. He wasn't in Kansas like Dorothy. 'Magic' was real.
This could just as much be a Mage doing Mage stuff that resulted in murderous suits of armor and carnivorous plants.
Frankly, considering how these plants were definitely not the type you'd gift to people, he was opting that whoever was the 'Alchemist' behind this sort of stuff, they had probably ended up either dying badly to them, or were responsible for the house trying to murder them.
"All right," Saito muttered as he held his sword aloft in front of him. The runes shone briefly on the back of his hand as he charged ahead, screaming as behind him the greenhouse's door shattered to reveal the suit of armor still in pursuit. The plants snapped their salivating jaws at him and Luise, but he was faster than them, and thus easily passed through the deadly greens -whoever said that vegetables were good to eat had never thought they might one day grow teeth to bite back.
The suit wasn't that lucky, and as the armor slowed down considerably, Saito came to a halt on the other side of the greenhouse.
So, from what he knew of Mages, they had wands and needed to pronounce spells to make magic. This mage was probably watching them with a form of magic-camera, and if that wasn't possible, then-
Of course, Mages had familiars, didn't they?
Could it be? Anytime he had lecherous thoughts, Luise would kick him even when asleep. Could that be it?
Swallowing his nervousness, Saito ended up past the greenhouse and once more inside the mansion, this time in a hallway that ended with a library of all things.
The mage's familiar had to be something small, or he would have noticed him sooner. Something small, and normally insignificant in an old and abandoned mansion that could however move fast enough to keep up with him.
A spider? A rat? A fly? A-
Saito held his breath as he walked past a set of books, the clanking of the armor not far behind him. In such a huge mansion, how could there not be a mirror? The windows themselves were shiny enough to-
"Got you," Saito said, quickly swatting out of his hair the spider that had hidden amidst his dark locks, and as the creature fell on the ground, he hastily slammed his sword down in front of it, grabbing the creature and holding it right in front of him. Under the light of the moon, thin glittering symbols were carved on the creature's back, signaling that it was indeed the mage's familiar.
"I've got your familiar!" Saito said. "If you care about him-"
The suit of armor didn't stop. No, the suit of armor simply flung its poleaxe in a spinning pattern towards Saito the moment he had him in view, forcing the boy to avoid it or end up sliced in half. "Don't you care what happens to him!?" Saito yelled.
"He's just a spider." The voice came from the spider itself, no longer 'ghost-like'. "Kill him, I've got dozens around."
The suit of armor charged at Saito, swinging its fists of steel, and as Saito hastily threw the spider, the poor creature was squashed against the nearby wall by the armor itself.
As Saito had to hold on to Luise, and was currently without his sword, he reverted back to his dagger just to acquire that boost of speed that would enable him to get back his sword-which the suit of armor stole from him, making him hastily roll away from the golem itself.
The poleaxe had been slammed into the wall up to the hilt -thus, quite a considerable length- but Saito had to merely grab the shaft and pull to free it, as if it had never been 'trapped' within the wall at all to begin with.
Holding the poleaxe in one arm and Luise on his other shoulder, he stood in front of the golem with his heart throbbing wildly a thousand of heartbeats a second.
The suit bent its knees and swung the sword, charging ahead in a devastating leap. In that moment, Saito knew what he had to do.
He was the shield.
As he dropped Luise against the wall, he clutched the poleaxe with both hands, the familiar symbols shining brightly as he narrowed his eyes and thrust forward, hitting with the tip the sword itself, which made sparks fly through the air. The hallway was narrow, and the movements limited, but Saito did not retreat even as the suit of armor could not advance.
The first of many nicks formed on the plate, and yet Saito did not take a single step back. The boy took one step forward, and the suit of armor took one back. Kept at poleaxe length, the suit of armor could do little but defend itself even as it lost a shoulder-pad, and then the left gauntlet.
Still, it did not stop fighting.
"Enough!" a raspy voice snarled from behind Saito, making the boy stop. Thankfully, the golem stopped too. "This much noise will have attracted the guards by now," a dry looking man with thin mustaches and a rat-like face hissed from behind Luise, the girl held by the man's left arm upwards as his left had a dagger poised to strike at her neck. "Now listen here adventurer, you couldn't have come by another day? I was already set on leaving after taking care of my last few dealings," the man curled his lips in disgust. "But no, noble types like you couldn't just leave when asked."
Saito would have liked to point out how the door had closed on them, or the windows had felt like steel when he had tried to jump out of them. He had a feeling that if he did though, the man wouldn't hesitate to strike at Luise.
"Look," Saito said. "We can make a deal."
"A deal?" the man raised an eyebrow. "What deal?"
"We're adventurers, Luis and I," Saito said, an eye on the golem and one on the man. "We-We don't care what you're doing or why, really! We just thought there was a ghost to exorcise, so if you're leaving, then I can give you a hand in packing up!" Saito added quickly. "And you can let go of Luis. I mean, it's not like you want to add murder to your list of crimes, right? I think there are pesky sentences for murder."
The man actually made a face as if he was considering it, "And how do I know you're telling the truth about the deal?" the man asked, his dagger still poised on Luise's neck.
"Because we're not getting paid to fight you, or die fighting you, so we have no reason to fight," Saito replied.
"Ah, so I misunderstood your type," the man said with a nod. "Well, indeed-if I leave, you get paid for your exorcism, don't you? And I get to leave with more stuff than planned if you help me pack. Sure, why not?" he shrugged. "You think me an idiot?" he snapped next. "Someone capable of surviving a triangle-Earth golem is no shoddy adventurer who's in it just for the money! Your friend here uses very complex magic without chanting! The moment I stop holding her, you'll just kill me and take everything I have for yourself!"
"That's not really what I want to do," Saito said. "Really, please."
Rat-Face hesitated briefly. "I never wanted to start this line of work," he said in the end. "I was a noble, a rich, fancy, overweight noble. I lost fifty kilos since I was found 'unworthy of my title' for having entertained one too many experiments involving plants. But what did they know? Sure, sure, a few maids had been nearly eaten alive, but the plants were perfectly safe around me! And there was that time with the royal guardsman, but Betty was just defending me from his pushy ways! He had no right to barge in the greenhouse during feeding time!" the man snarled, his eyes slightly crazed and his breath uneven. "So I had to change city, and when I found this abandoned place I decided I would settle right in!"
So this was what Luise meant with the 'pitiful backstory'. Saito gave a quick look to the Golem, who had outright 'stopped' and was standing still. He could do it. He had to do it before Luise woke up and tried to free herself. The dagger was too close to her neck that it would take even a single uneven movement for her to end up with a second smile.
"Look, I understand you went through a lot," Saito said. "Speaking of plants-what's your favorite?"
"My...favorite?" the man said, puzzled. "My favorite...plant?"
"Yes," Saito nodded as he clutched the poleaxe tightly. He had one shot at this. He had no more than one shot at this. The moment the man's arm would tire slightly, he'd 'pull Luise' back up, in so doing, he would show off his shoulder.
"Well, my favorite plant is-"
There.
The Poleaxe stopped being a poleaxe for those brief two seconds it took for it to travel at the fastest possible speed for a human -no, scratch that, beyond human- and instead became an arrow, an arrow having been thrown by a missile launcher, all things said and done for the effect it had.
Saito hadn't planned on severing the man's arm by the shoulder, nor had he planned on hurting anyone. However one could only throw a poleaxe in two possible directions, and Luise's life was at stake.
The Golem crumbled down within mere minutes, and Saito rushed ahead to grab the still asleep Luise, who was peacefully snoring away. The man was instead screaming as he clutched his shoulder, having been literally 'pinned' to the wall on the other side of the hallway, the poleaxe remaining firmly planted in his shoulder-bone.
Taking a deep breath and holding Luise once more in bridal carry, he looked at Rat-Face. "You really should have taken the deal. I was being honest."
He then neared the closest window, and with a kick shattered the frame, revealing the gardens outside and a few guards who were already stepping into the gardens from the gates.
"Over here!" Saito yelled, waving at them.
He didn't expect to have to spend the reminder of the night in a cell by the guards' barracks together with Luise, a patched up Rat-Face, and a group of very disreputable folks that seemed keen on making them eat their own teeth.
"By the way," Rat-Face said as a mean of conversation while holding his wounded shoulder. "My favorite plant is the Hydrangea, and thank you for not severing my arm."
"I like Cherry Blossoms," Saito replied honestly. "And you're welcome. But you could have just left the door open, we would have left."
The man frowned. "But I didn't close it. Your other friend did."
Saito blinked. "What other friend?"
"That guy with the leather armor badly patched up and a small sword that was behind you and your friend. He bailed on you, didn't he?"
Saito frowned. "It's always been Luis and I. I thought you had closed the door."
The man paled.
Saito paled.
They both looked away from one another and laughed nervously. "Hallucinations!"
"Hallucinations!"
No more words were spoken.
No more words needed to be spoken.
Saito knew that this was the fault of an Alchemist. He was so sure this was the fault of an Alchemist that he didn't even bother with screaming at the sight of a carnivorous plant with teeth snap its jaws an inch away from his face. He just pulled out his sword and sliced the thing's blossom-like face letting it shriek as it died, spluttering green blood everywhere on him and on Luise's back, since he had moved from a bridal carry to a shoulder-carry.
He had been so set on the idea it was a ghost that it took him the sight of carnivorous plants to realize he wasn't back on Earth anymore. He wasn't in Kansas like Dorothy. 'Magic' was real.
This could just as much be a Mage doing Mage stuff that resulted in murderous suits of armor and carnivorous plants.
Frankly, considering how these plants were definitely not the type you'd gift to people, he was opting that whoever was the 'Alchemist' behind this sort of stuff, they had probably ended up either dying badly to them, or were responsible for the house trying to murder them.
"All right," Saito muttered as he held his sword aloft in front of him. The runes shone briefly on the back of his hand as he charged ahead, screaming as behind him the greenhouse's door shattered to reveal the suit of armor still in pursuit. The plants snapped their salivating jaws at him and Luise, but he was faster than them, and thus easily passed through the deadly greens -whoever said that vegetables were good to eat had never thought they might one day grow teeth to bite back.
The suit wasn't that lucky, and as the armor slowed down considerably, Saito came to a halt on the other side of the greenhouse.
So, from what he knew of Mages, they had wands and needed to pronounce spells to make magic. This mage was probably watching them with a form of magic-camera, and if that wasn't possible, then-
Of course, Mages had familiars, didn't they?
Could it be? Anytime he had lecherous thoughts, Luise would kick him even when asleep. Could that be it?
Swallowing his nervousness, Saito ended up past the greenhouse and once more inside the mansion, this time in a hallway that ended with a library of all things.
The mage's familiar had to be something small, or he would have noticed him sooner. Something small, and normally insignificant in an old and abandoned mansion that could however move fast enough to keep up with him.
A spider? A rat? A fly? A-
Saito held his breath as he walked past a set of books, the clanking of the armor not far behind him. In such a huge mansion, how could there not be a mirror? The windows themselves were shiny enough to-
"Got you," Saito said, quickly swatting out of his hair the spider that had hidden amidst his dark locks, and as the creature fell on the ground, he hastily slammed his sword down in front of it, grabbing the creature and holding it right in front of him. Under the light of the moon, thin glittering symbols were carved on the creature's back, signaling that it was indeed the mage's familiar.
"I've got your familiar!" Saito said. "If you care about him-"
The suit of armor didn't stop. No, the suit of armor simply flung its poleaxe in a spinning pattern towards Saito the moment he had him in view, forcing the boy to avoid it or end up sliced in half. "Don't you care what happens to him!?" Saito yelled.
"He's just a spider." The voice came from the spider itself, no longer 'ghost-like'. "Kill him, I've got dozens around."
The suit of armor charged at Saito, swinging its fists of steel, and as Saito hastily threw the spider, the poor creature was squashed against the nearby wall by the armor itself.
As Saito had to hold on to Luise, and was currently without his sword, he reverted back to his dagger just to acquire that boost of speed that would enable him to get back his sword-which the suit of armor stole from him, making him hastily roll away from the golem itself.
The poleaxe had been slammed into the wall up to the hilt -thus, quite a considerable length- but Saito had to merely grab the shaft and pull to free it, as if it had never been 'trapped' within the wall at all to begin with.
Holding the poleaxe in one arm and Luise on his other shoulder, he stood in front of the golem with his heart throbbing wildly a thousand of heartbeats a second.
The suit bent its knees and swung the sword, charging ahead in a devastating leap. In that moment, Saito knew what he had to do.
He was the shield.
As he dropped Luise against the wall, he clutched the poleaxe with both hands, the familiar symbols shining brightly as he narrowed his eyes and thrust forward, hitting with the tip the sword itself, which made sparks fly through the air. The hallway was narrow, and the movements limited, but Saito did not retreat even as the suit of armor could not advance.
The first of many nicks formed on the plate, and yet Saito did not take a single step back. The boy took one step forward, and the suit of armor took one back. Kept at poleaxe length, the suit of armor could do little but defend itself even as it lost a shoulder-pad, and then the left gauntlet.
Still, it did not stop fighting.
"Enough!" a raspy voice snarled from behind Saito, making the boy stop. Thankfully, the golem stopped too. "This much noise will have attracted the guards by now," a dry looking man with thin mustaches and a rat-like face hissed from behind Luise, the girl held by the man's left arm upwards as his left had a dagger poised to strike at her neck. "Now listen here adventurer, you couldn't have come by another day? I was already set on leaving after taking care of my last few dealings," the man curled his lips in disgust. "But no, noble types like you couldn't just leave when asked."
Saito would have liked to point out how the door had closed on them, or the windows had felt like steel when he had tried to jump out of them. He had a feeling that if he did though, the man wouldn't hesitate to strike at Luise.
"Look," Saito said. "We can make a deal."
"A deal?" the man raised an eyebrow. "What deal?"
"We're adventurers, Luis and I," Saito said, an eye on the golem and one on the man. "We-We don't care what you're doing or why, really! We just thought there was a ghost to exorcise, so if you're leaving, then I can give you a hand in packing up!" Saito added quickly. "And you can let go of Luis. I mean, it's not like you want to add murder to your list of crimes, right? I think there are pesky sentences for murder."
The man actually made a face as if he was considering it, "And how do I know you're telling the truth about the deal?" the man asked, his dagger still poised on Luise's neck.
"Because we're not getting paid to fight you, or die fighting you, so we have no reason to fight," Saito replied.
"Ah, so I misunderstood your type," the man said with a nod. "Well, indeed-if I leave, you get paid for your exorcism, don't you? And I get to leave with more stuff than planned if you help me pack. Sure, why not?" he shrugged. "You think me an idiot?" he snapped next. "Someone capable of surviving a triangle-Earth golem is no shoddy adventurer who's in it just for the money! Your friend here uses very complex magic without chanting! The moment I stop holding her, you'll just kill me and take everything I have for yourself!"
"That's not really what I want to do," Saito said. "Really, please."
Rat-Face hesitated briefly. "I never wanted to start this line of work," he said in the end. "I was a noble, a rich, fancy, overweight noble. I lost fifty kilos since I was found 'unworthy of my title' for having entertained one too many experiments involving plants. But what did they know? Sure, sure, a few maids had been nearly eaten alive, but the plants were perfectly safe around me! And there was that time with the royal guardsman, but Betty was just defending me from his pushy ways! He had no right to barge in the greenhouse during feeding time!" the man snarled, his eyes slightly crazed and his breath uneven. "So I had to change city, and when I found this abandoned place I decided I would settle right in!"
So this was what Luise meant with the 'pitiful backstory'. Saito gave a quick look to the Golem, who had outright 'stopped' and was standing still. He could do it. He had to do it before Luise woke up and tried to free herself. The dagger was too close to her neck that it would take even a single uneven movement for her to end up with a second smile.
"Look, I understand you went through a lot," Saito said. "Speaking of plants-what's your favorite?"
"My...favorite?" the man said, puzzled. "My favorite...plant?"
"Yes," Saito nodded as he clutched the poleaxe tightly. He had one shot at this. He had no more than one shot at this. The moment the man's arm would tire slightly, he'd 'pull Luise' back up, in so doing, he would show off his shoulder.
"Well, my favorite plant is-"
There.
The Poleaxe stopped being a poleaxe for those brief two seconds it took for it to travel at the fastest possible speed for a human -no, scratch that, beyond human- and instead became an arrow, an arrow having been thrown by a missile launcher, all things said and done for the effect it had.
Saito hadn't planned on severing the man's arm by the shoulder, nor had he planned on hurting anyone. However one could only throw a poleaxe in two possible directions, and Luise's life was at stake.
The Golem crumbled down within mere minutes, and Saito rushed ahead to grab the still asleep Luise, who was peacefully snoring away. The man was instead screaming as he clutched his shoulder, having been literally 'pinned' to the wall on the other side of the hallway, the poleaxe remaining firmly planted in his shoulder-bone.
Taking a deep breath and holding Luise once more in bridal carry, he looked at Rat-Face. "You really should have taken the deal. I was being honest."
He then neared the closest window, and with a kick shattered the frame, revealing the gardens outside and a few guards who were already stepping into the gardens from the gates.
"Over here!" Saito yelled, waving at them.
He didn't expect to have to spend the reminder of the night in a cell by the guards' barracks together with Luise, a patched up Rat-Face, and a group of very disreputable folks that seemed keen on making them eat their own teeth.
"By the way," Rat-Face said as a mean of conversation while holding his wounded shoulder. "My favorite plant is the Hydrangea, and thank you for not severing my arm."
"I like Cherry Blossoms," Saito replied honestly. "And you're welcome. But you could have just left the door open, we would have left."
The man frowned. "But I didn't close it. Your other friend did."
Saito blinked. "What other friend?"
"That guy with the leather armor badly patched up and a small sword that was behind you and your friend. He bailed on you, didn't he?"
Saito frowned. "It's always been Luis and I. I thought you had closed the door."
The man paled.
Saito paled.
They both looked away from one another and laughed nervously. "Hallucinations!"
"Hallucinations!"
No more words were spoken.
No more words needed to be spoken.
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
we wait until the middle
plant, sharp teeth snapping an inch away from his face.
wildly at thousands of heartbeats a minute.
Huh. Why did Saito and Luis get arrested alongside the Alchemist?
Nervos Belli
Don't think this means you've won!
- Location
- Murica
Becuse when you walk into a haunted house and see two people trying to kill each other while a third is unconscious, it's easier to throw them all in a cell than try to work out who is at fault.
"Frak this, will let the day shift sort this out!"
Also something tells me that Alchemist will soon be the bane of Saito existence.
Chapter Thirty-One
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Chapter Thirty-One
Luise was not pleased to wake up in the gallows. She was pleased it hadn't been a ghost but a bandit-mage, and she was also pleased that the man who had hired them had also come to prove their innocence, bailing them out and paying them in turn.
So, after finding a water mage and haggling a bit, Saito's teeth were now perfectly fixed back to their charming normal self.
"Don't break them again," Luise said hotly.
Saito, in answer, pulled out the helmet from his backpack. "That's why I brought this along." He then put it back inside. "Once we have enough money to fix it to my size, we'll be set."
Luise nodded, and then frowned as she looked at the weapon hanging from Saito's back. "Wait a minute. Since when do you have a poleaxe?"
"Well, it was thrown at me, so I sort of held on to it. The guards handed it back when we left, so I think it's mine now?" as Saito laughed nervously, Luise simply scoffed.
"Well, at least now we don't have to worry about money for a while. Let's go to a blacksmith while we wait." Even if they were adventurers, they couldn't just enter into a royal palace without reason. The cardinal would receive notices from the head priests of the nearby churches each day, and so Father Christoff had told Luise to simply warn a head priest about the urgency of their mission.
The head priest had nodded and accepted most gracefully to do that, but he wouldn't have an answer until later in the evening -when he would come back from the palace.
So now Saito and Luise were walking through the capital looking for a good blacksmith. They ended up settling for a small cornerstone shop, which had a variety of weapons inside.
"Oh, adventurers! You are already my best customers!" the man said graciously as they stepped inside. "What will it be?! Poisoned arrows? Barbed arrows? Grappling hooks? You want a special boot dagger? We even have cute hairpins that turn into deadly caltrops!"
Saito and Luise blinked at the same time. "Swordwand," Luise said. "Do you have a swordwand?" she asked.
"A? I have all types! Good and light for the swashbuckling pirate, heavy and sturdy for the northern barbarian who wishes to add spells to his mighty cleaving-"
"A swordwand for someone like me," Luise said flatly. "I make things explode."
The blacksmith raised an eyebrow. "Fire mage?"
"And water too," Luise said.
"Oh, a Line Mage? Well, that's a fun combination! I've got just the thing-from the highest peaks of Albion's soaring-"
"Could you please finish it with the sale pitch?" Luise said hotly. "We are not here to waste away our money on frills."
The blacksmith visibly deflated, "Let a man try to make a quick buck on the side, will ya? Here you go, a good and standard swordwand from the Germanian tribe wars," as he spoke, he pulled out from beneath his counter a sturdy looking rapier, which however seemed to have a slightly thicker blade by the hand-protector, which opened up towards the end. "Place your wand in the middle of the guard, it will serve as the handle of the blade. Takes a bit to get used to, but the movements remain the same. Just now you've got to be careful because you're swinging a piece of steel and no longer just a piece of wood."
"I see," Luise said, looking down at the swordwand and moving it a bit. "How much?"
The blacksmith rattled off a price, and Luise blinked and rattled off another.
The two began to haggle, and as they did, Saito moved towards a barrel filled with rusty swords. 'Occasions! Only five Ecus each!' was written above it. At least, he hoped he was reading it right.
"Saito, we are not buying you more swords," Luise said hotly from the counter, where she had just finished haggling with the blacksmith, who was sweating, yet satisfied with the price bargained for in the end.
"Just looking. Usually blacksmiths have magic swords or the like, right?"
"You're out of luck, or maybe you are in luck," the blacksmith said. "I had a magic sword, but all it could do was talk and insult my customers. A blue-haired girl came by and bought it just a few weeks ago, so, well, no magic swords. You'd have better luck asking an Earth mage to reinforce it."
"Oh," Saito's shoulders dropped slightly. "About modifying a helmet instead-"
The blacksmith smiled, ready to rattle off a price. Then he saw the fierce gaze coming from Luise's masked face, and somehow he began to sweat even more.
In the end, the helm was adjusted, and as the duo walked out of the blacksmith satisfied and well-equipped, they came to a halt in front of a crepes stall vendor, who was selling the tasty treats to a line of eagerly waiting young women.
"Want one?" Saito asked, his stomach grumbling.
"Just because we have a bit of spending money doesn't mean we have to spend it all," Luise said, but as she eyed the whipped cream apparently put over one chocolate-covered crepe, her resistance waned and disappeared like ice in the middle of a volcano, because even ice can have suicidal tendencies.
In front of them, a cowl-hidden figure was in wait, but was also nervously looking back and forth as if afraid somebody would catch up to her soon enough. The line meanwhile kept moving forward, and as it did, the woman began to calm down, visibly interested in getting a crepe more than in being 'found' by whoever was looking for her, apparently.
Luise didn't really care if she was a thief trying to hide her face from the guards or whatever it might have been. She just wanted her crepe, just like Saito wanted his.
The man selling the crepes didn't even bat an eyelid at the cowl-covered woman, just like he didn't at the mask-covered Luise or at the weapon-holding Saito.
As fate would have it, there was a nearby bench that was free for all three of them, and so as the trio began to eat into their crepes without care for the outside world, the cowl-covered woman was the first to break the silence.
"Uhm, forgive me for asking this of you-but are you two sirs adventurers?" as she asked, her female voice came out clearly, just as her shyness, apparently.
"Yep," Luise said, giving another bite to her crepe. "I'm Luis and this is Saito," Luise said gruffly. "We hunt monsters, defend ladies in need and everything else a customer might need," she said with the 'manliest' tone she could muster. "What about you, mysterious lady? Do you have a name?"
"Oh-Well," the mysterious woman said, "Anne. My name is Anne," she said in the end. "You must have some bold tales to tell, don't you? If-If I'm not bothering you, kind sirs-"
"It is no bother at all!" Luise said, clapping one of her hands against her knee as if that was what all males did. "Let me regale you with this most excellent tale then! My partner and I were tracking this dangerous gryphon through the wheat fields-"
Saito couldn't believe Anne was buying Luise's tale, but she apparently was.
"And then I carried my wounded comrade who was bleeding most grievously to the closest village, where I had to nurse him-"
The woman had both of her hands to her mouth, looking wide-eyed as she had stopped trying to hide her face with the cowl and was simply listening on keenly.
"Really Saito, where would you be without me?" Luise said with a manly chuckle.
"Back home eating my mother's cooking," Saito replied offhandedly, making Luise nearly choke on her spit.
"Right," Luise said, coughing a bit in her hand closed as a fist. "Saito did his best too though! The number of times he saved my life are really too many for a single day, but there was that time with these vile brigands and their deadly axes-"
Saito was honestly surprised Anne kept believing the tall tales that Luise spouted. It wasn't that they were outright lies, but they kept growing wilder. He had apparently defeated more than fifty armed men in a bandit camp and saved a few dozens of damsels in distress -was Luise actually having fun telling these stories?
Perhaps she was.
So as he watched the two girls speak with one another and simply have a good time, he frowned when he saw 'Anne' tense, and he narrowed his eyes when a man with a large feathered hat stepped into the square. The way Anne settled her cowl tighter in front of her face clinched the deal.
"Are you running away from a perverted noble too?" Saito asked.
"Uh?" Anne said, puzzled.
"If you are, then we know a place you can crash for a while. The owner's a kind man, and when we're done here, we can escort you back home, or wherever you want to go, really," Saito added. "We can do that, right, Luis?"
"W-What, of course," Luise said sharply. "It's the blond fop with the large hat, isn't he? He screams of 'smug smirk' and 'air of superiority cause I'm a filthy rich noble that can get all the women I want'."
"Yeah," Saito nodded.
"Ah, no, no," Anne said shaking her head. "It's all right. I'm just not supposed to be out for long period of times. I must have spent too much time speaking with you kind sirs, but I am glad you are valiant adventurers willing to help a stranger in need." Anne had a wistful smile on her face. "He is merely my guardian."
"If you do need a hand though, we'll be hanging by the church until the Cardinal calls for us, and then we'll be at the Charming Fairy Inn until tomorrow morning," Saito said, "He can't be that great of a guardian if you're trying so hard to hide yourself from him," Saito added as Anne looked at him with a puzzled look, before giggling lightly.
She waved them both goodbye and walked primly towards the man, whose eyes widened at her sight, and after a few tense words exchanged, they both departed the square.
"Back to the church," Luise said with a huff. "Come on Saito, you can't save them all-especially if they don't want to be saved. You're no hero of legends after all."
Saito chuckled and stretched as he stood up, "It feels like I'm leveling up to become one though-really, have I ever told you about 'RPG' games from my hometown?"
Luise sighed. "No, but I am sure you will."
And Saito indeed did.
Luise kindly listened. It was in part her fault. She had brought up, unwillingly as she had, Saito's memories of home. It was only just she listened on to him speak with nostalgia about it.
It made her slightly bitter though.
At least Saito had memories of a loving family and a happy household to speak of.
Luise was not pleased to wake up in the gallows. She was pleased it hadn't been a ghost but a bandit-mage, and she was also pleased that the man who had hired them had also come to prove their innocence, bailing them out and paying them in turn.
So, after finding a water mage and haggling a bit, Saito's teeth were now perfectly fixed back to their charming normal self.
"Don't break them again," Luise said hotly.
Saito, in answer, pulled out the helmet from his backpack. "That's why I brought this along." He then put it back inside. "Once we have enough money to fix it to my size, we'll be set."
Luise nodded, and then frowned as she looked at the weapon hanging from Saito's back. "Wait a minute. Since when do you have a poleaxe?"
"Well, it was thrown at me, so I sort of held on to it. The guards handed it back when we left, so I think it's mine now?" as Saito laughed nervously, Luise simply scoffed.
"Well, at least now we don't have to worry about money for a while. Let's go to a blacksmith while we wait." Even if they were adventurers, they couldn't just enter into a royal palace without reason. The cardinal would receive notices from the head priests of the nearby churches each day, and so Father Christoff had told Luise to simply warn a head priest about the urgency of their mission.
The head priest had nodded and accepted most gracefully to do that, but he wouldn't have an answer until later in the evening -when he would come back from the palace.
So now Saito and Luise were walking through the capital looking for a good blacksmith. They ended up settling for a small cornerstone shop, which had a variety of weapons inside.
"Oh, adventurers! You are already my best customers!" the man said graciously as they stepped inside. "What will it be?! Poisoned arrows? Barbed arrows? Grappling hooks? You want a special boot dagger? We even have cute hairpins that turn into deadly caltrops!"
Saito and Luise blinked at the same time. "Swordwand," Luise said. "Do you have a swordwand?" she asked.
"A? I have all types! Good and light for the swashbuckling pirate, heavy and sturdy for the northern barbarian who wishes to add spells to his mighty cleaving-"
"A swordwand for someone like me," Luise said flatly. "I make things explode."
The blacksmith raised an eyebrow. "Fire mage?"
"And water too," Luise said.
"Oh, a Line Mage? Well, that's a fun combination! I've got just the thing-from the highest peaks of Albion's soaring-"
"Could you please finish it with the sale pitch?" Luise said hotly. "We are not here to waste away our money on frills."
The blacksmith visibly deflated, "Let a man try to make a quick buck on the side, will ya? Here you go, a good and standard swordwand from the Germanian tribe wars," as he spoke, he pulled out from beneath his counter a sturdy looking rapier, which however seemed to have a slightly thicker blade by the hand-protector, which opened up towards the end. "Place your wand in the middle of the guard, it will serve as the handle of the blade. Takes a bit to get used to, but the movements remain the same. Just now you've got to be careful because you're swinging a piece of steel and no longer just a piece of wood."
"I see," Luise said, looking down at the swordwand and moving it a bit. "How much?"
The blacksmith rattled off a price, and Luise blinked and rattled off another.
The two began to haggle, and as they did, Saito moved towards a barrel filled with rusty swords. 'Occasions! Only five Ecus each!' was written above it. At least, he hoped he was reading it right.
"Saito, we are not buying you more swords," Luise said hotly from the counter, where she had just finished haggling with the blacksmith, who was sweating, yet satisfied with the price bargained for in the end.
"Just looking. Usually blacksmiths have magic swords or the like, right?"
"You're out of luck, or maybe you are in luck," the blacksmith said. "I had a magic sword, but all it could do was talk and insult my customers. A blue-haired girl came by and bought it just a few weeks ago, so, well, no magic swords. You'd have better luck asking an Earth mage to reinforce it."
"Oh," Saito's shoulders dropped slightly. "About modifying a helmet instead-"
The blacksmith smiled, ready to rattle off a price. Then he saw the fierce gaze coming from Luise's masked face, and somehow he began to sweat even more.
In the end, the helm was adjusted, and as the duo walked out of the blacksmith satisfied and well-equipped, they came to a halt in front of a crepes stall vendor, who was selling the tasty treats to a line of eagerly waiting young women.
"Want one?" Saito asked, his stomach grumbling.
"Just because we have a bit of spending money doesn't mean we have to spend it all," Luise said, but as she eyed the whipped cream apparently put over one chocolate-covered crepe, her resistance waned and disappeared like ice in the middle of a volcano, because even ice can have suicidal tendencies.
In front of them, a cowl-hidden figure was in wait, but was also nervously looking back and forth as if afraid somebody would catch up to her soon enough. The line meanwhile kept moving forward, and as it did, the woman began to calm down, visibly interested in getting a crepe more than in being 'found' by whoever was looking for her, apparently.
Luise didn't really care if she was a thief trying to hide her face from the guards or whatever it might have been. She just wanted her crepe, just like Saito wanted his.
The man selling the crepes didn't even bat an eyelid at the cowl-covered woman, just like he didn't at the mask-covered Luise or at the weapon-holding Saito.
As fate would have it, there was a nearby bench that was free for all three of them, and so as the trio began to eat into their crepes without care for the outside world, the cowl-covered woman was the first to break the silence.
"Uhm, forgive me for asking this of you-but are you two sirs adventurers?" as she asked, her female voice came out clearly, just as her shyness, apparently.
"Yep," Luise said, giving another bite to her crepe. "I'm Luis and this is Saito," Luise said gruffly. "We hunt monsters, defend ladies in need and everything else a customer might need," she said with the 'manliest' tone she could muster. "What about you, mysterious lady? Do you have a name?"
"Oh-Well," the mysterious woman said, "Anne. My name is Anne," she said in the end. "You must have some bold tales to tell, don't you? If-If I'm not bothering you, kind sirs-"
"It is no bother at all!" Luise said, clapping one of her hands against her knee as if that was what all males did. "Let me regale you with this most excellent tale then! My partner and I were tracking this dangerous gryphon through the wheat fields-"
Saito couldn't believe Anne was buying Luise's tale, but she apparently was.
"And then I carried my wounded comrade who was bleeding most grievously to the closest village, where I had to nurse him-"
The woman had both of her hands to her mouth, looking wide-eyed as she had stopped trying to hide her face with the cowl and was simply listening on keenly.
"Really Saito, where would you be without me?" Luise said with a manly chuckle.
"Back home eating my mother's cooking," Saito replied offhandedly, making Luise nearly choke on her spit.
"Right," Luise said, coughing a bit in her hand closed as a fist. "Saito did his best too though! The number of times he saved my life are really too many for a single day, but there was that time with these vile brigands and their deadly axes-"
Saito was honestly surprised Anne kept believing the tall tales that Luise spouted. It wasn't that they were outright lies, but they kept growing wilder. He had apparently defeated more than fifty armed men in a bandit camp and saved a few dozens of damsels in distress -was Luise actually having fun telling these stories?
Perhaps she was.
So as he watched the two girls speak with one another and simply have a good time, he frowned when he saw 'Anne' tense, and he narrowed his eyes when a man with a large feathered hat stepped into the square. The way Anne settled her cowl tighter in front of her face clinched the deal.
"Are you running away from a perverted noble too?" Saito asked.
"Uh?" Anne said, puzzled.
"If you are, then we know a place you can crash for a while. The owner's a kind man, and when we're done here, we can escort you back home, or wherever you want to go, really," Saito added. "We can do that, right, Luis?"
"W-What, of course," Luise said sharply. "It's the blond fop with the large hat, isn't he? He screams of 'smug smirk' and 'air of superiority cause I'm a filthy rich noble that can get all the women I want'."
"Yeah," Saito nodded.
"Ah, no, no," Anne said shaking her head. "It's all right. I'm just not supposed to be out for long period of times. I must have spent too much time speaking with you kind sirs, but I am glad you are valiant adventurers willing to help a stranger in need." Anne had a wistful smile on her face. "He is merely my guardian."
"If you do need a hand though, we'll be hanging by the church until the Cardinal calls for us, and then we'll be at the Charming Fairy Inn until tomorrow morning," Saito said, "He can't be that great of a guardian if you're trying so hard to hide yourself from him," Saito added as Anne looked at him with a puzzled look, before giggling lightly.
She waved them both goodbye and walked primly towards the man, whose eyes widened at her sight, and after a few tense words exchanged, they both departed the square.
"Back to the church," Luise said with a huff. "Come on Saito, you can't save them all-especially if they don't want to be saved. You're no hero of legends after all."
Saito chuckled and stretched as he stood up, "It feels like I'm leveling up to become one though-really, have I ever told you about 'RPG' games from my hometown?"
Luise sighed. "No, but I am sure you will."
And Saito indeed did.
Luise kindly listened. It was in part her fault. She had brought up, unwillingly as she had, Saito's memories of home. It was only just she listened on to him speak with nostalgia about it.
It made her slightly bitter though.
At least Saito had memories of a loving family and a happy household to speak of.
Nervos Belli
Don't think this means you've won!
- Location
- Murica
So Tabitha ended up with Derflinger, eh? I'm not sure who to feel sorry for. Also Henrietta encounter. I like how many of the canon scenes are repeating themselves in a completely new context.
Schwer-Muta
A Shy Arrogance
That fact is hardly advertised though. Even he doesn't tell people that casually.
That's also her fake name of choice I've seen in several fanfics (and I assume source material but I've only read fanfics) so it's probably the case.
- Location
- https://discord.gg/z9tBvbh
Actually four updates considering the Italian-Timezone. I'm Shade. Nice to meet you.
I write very fast.
Likewise, and yeah thanks for putting out so much awesome sauce. It really goes great with the pumpkin pie.